Yin Hui opened the box in surprise, and inside was a gold inlaid gem hairpin. No matter how expensive the hairpin was, Yin Hui had it. But it was a gift from the imperial court, and Yin Hui was very happy. She was very cooperative when Wei Luo came to ask to do it at night, even though she was already tired.
But that night, Yin Hui didn’t want to serve him again. In the afternoon, she had fulfilled her duty as a wife. Continuing to do it at night would only make her look easy. It didn’t matter if he was wronged, she didn’t want to wrong herself.
Wei Luo turned to her sideways, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her looking at the box eagerly, but didn’t ask any questions.
She had always been like that, too polite, too cautious.
“Master, do you want to turn off the lights?”
Before the maids retreated, they asked for instructions.
Wei Luo: “No need.”
The two maids bowed their heads and left.
Wei Luo turned around and was about to speak, when he saw Yin Hui pulling up the quilt to cover her nose, as if yawning, and a layer of water appeared in her peach blossom eyes reflecting the light.
“Sleepy?” he asked.
Yin Hui nodded, and said tactfully but quite clearly, “I helped the second sister-in-law in the morning, so I didn’t sleep well in the afternoon.”
Wei Hao looked at her drooping eyes, and the doubts that arose were finally answered. No wonder instead of serving him respectfully as before, she lay down first, because her body couldn’t hold on anymore.
“The Emperor rewarded you, take a look at it first,” Wei Luo pushed the box over.
Yin Hui did not sit up in fear, as if the Emperor was just an ordinary elder. She was still lying lazily, with only two arms outstretched, one hand supporting the box, the other opening the lid, and looking inside. The familiar hairpin came into view, Yin Hui smiled, took it out and then asked Wei Luo: “Why did the Emperor think of rewarding me?”
Wei Luo: “This spring, my father wrote a letter to the palace, mentioning you and Xiao Heng.”
Yin Hui: “Just me, did other sister-in-laws also get gifts?”
Wei Luo saw the word “bold” in her beautiful eyes. He didn’t lecture her, but only explained, “He also gave my sister-in-law a reward, I don’t know what it is.”
Yin Hui smiled, “Second brother and the second sister-in-law didn’t go, so they didn’t get any gift?”
Wei Luo acquiesced.
Yin Hui put the hairpin into the box and said, “Put it away first, the second sister-in-law is in confinement, and when she recovers, I will show off in front of her.”
She was too in awe of Wei Luo before. The husband and wife were not like an ordinary family during the day, but like a master and a servant girl. Once again, Yin Hui neither wanted to offend Wei Luo and give him a reason to divorce her, nor did she want to restrict herself too much. If she could get along with Wei Luo on an equal footing, like when she poured tea for Wei Luo, he would also help her make her life get easier.
Moreover, the way of getting along was not a special case in the palace. Ji Xianxian often did not give Wei Yan a face, so Yin Hui was not going so over the top.
Wei Luo looked at the woman in the bed unexpectedly.
Every performance of hers that night was contrary to his expectations. She was so respectful at ordinary times, but when facing the imperial gift, she even wanted to show it off in front of the second sister-in-law.
Yin Hui covered her face and yawned again.
Wei Luo turned around, picked up the box and got out of bed.
Just as he put the box on the dressing table, her soft voice came out from the curtain, “By the way, you should turn off the lights too.”
Wei Luo continued to walk a few more steps and turned off a few lights, which was very common, but that sense of weirdness was becoming more obvious.
Back on the bed, her eyes were already used to the darkness, and she could be seen sleeping in the innermost part wrapped in a quilt. There was a space between the quilt and his quilt, and another child could sleep there.
Wei Luo lay down. In the silence, he could hear her shallow breathing.
Wei Luo had no choice but to sleep too.
At dawn, Yin Hui was woken up by him. He got into her bed and kneaded her like dough.
Yin Hui still wanted to pretend to be asleep, but could not hold back, and hummed.
She suddenly heard a chuckle.
Yin Hui was stimulated by the triumph in the short laughter, and pushed his hand angrily.
Wei Luo held her hand tightly.
When the first ray of morning light shined through the glazed windows onto the paved floor in the room, Wei Luo opened the curtains and walked out as if nothing had happened.
The maids were already waiting outside, and when they heard the summons, they came in one by one carrying water.
Wei Luo packed up and went to the front yard.
Yinzhan came to the bedside, and through the gauze curtain, she saw the lady lying on her stomach with a pillow, half of her shoulders exposed, and her long black hair messily scattered.
“Madam, it’s time to get up,” Yinzhan said softly.
Yin Hui knew it was time to get up, but the bones in her body seemed to be still soaking in the warm pool, and she couldn’t exert herself lazily.
“I’ll lie down for another quarter of an hour,” Yin Hui said greedily. She was very fortunate that Princess Xu was kind and charitable. They only needed to go to pay their respects on the tenth day of every month, so they could sleep late.
Yinzhan withdrew first.
A quarter of an hour passed quickly. Yin Hui sighed, gave up her nostalgia for the bed, sat up, and began to comb her hair. After sitting in front of the dressing table for a while, she realized that there were two more boxes on the table. One box contained the golden hairpin given by the Emperor, and the other box contained ten golden ingots neatly, and fifty taels.
Ten gold ingots, that was, five hundred taels of silver.
“The third master said that this is a gift from the Emperor to you and Wu Lang, please keep it,” Jinzhan explained with a smile.
Yin Hui smiled, who would not smile on seeing gold